Why I stretch

Because as much as it hurts, it feels amazing. It allows the muscles the elasticity they need to work without injury.

…. And it feels amazing

Monday Challenge

Most people start off their Monday’s doing the “Chest Workout”. If you look on my site, it’s probably the most popular post I have on this blog. My challenge today is to break out of the routine. Our bodies are amazing and can adapt to nearly any condition, routine, workout that you give it. Variety is the key to breaking boundaries. Whether it be to get over a plateau or to just bust out of the monotony.

Who’s up for the challenge? Post here and let me know what you did today to boycott National Chest Day!

P90X

A lot of people have asked me about this workout. In theory, this workout is pretty close to what a trainer would have you do, except that a trainer will hone in on your weaknesses (like posture deviations) and tailor a workout for you designed to be more personal.

HOWEVER…(there’s always a BIG BUTT in my posts, I swear)..

In order to give you a more personal opinion of it — drumroll please — I’m going to take the P90X Challenge!

I can tell you that I did the CardioX challenge last night and it was great!  I think he could’ve done a few more exercise examples for beginners or let them know what to do if they get fatigued or need to modify the exercise. I will keep everyone updated as I go!

APEX ULTRA Fat Burn

I’m about to start using this to see how it boosts my workouts/mood. Has anyone tried it? Have any comments?  I love APEX products, so I’m pretty excited about how this one will work!

EDIT: I started using this 3 days ago, I will keep you guys posted =)

Many of you already know that I am a huge advocate of MyApex.com.  There are many reasons for this.  Firstly, having worked for 24 Hour Fitness, I was exposed to them a lot and the one thing that stood out to me was that they do a lot of research. But more importantly…they will give you their research!  Not that many of us can understand it but if you had it in your hand, you could take it to a doctor. This is actually something I challenge you to do with everything.  Have you ever taken the chemical breakdown and research that you found on a medicine and brought it to the doctor and grilled him on how much he -really- knew about the medicine he/she was prescribing you?  Doesn’t it seem silly that we will blindly follow what our doctors tell us without question and they never even have to hand you supporting research to back the claim? 

I definitely take all my prescriptions home and do research before I ever stop at the pharmacy which is why I make some of the decisions I do.  So I guess my challenge to all of you is that you re-evaluate your view on that.  It’s why I’m here, partially.  I’ve been offered to try many different products (which by the way! I never received my Labrada products. I know I told you guys I would try it and get back to you but the person that was supposed to send it has not yet so when that happens I’ll get back to you, I promise) and I try them because with all the media hype and the billions of dollars being made off of  people trying to lose weight or get in shape, someone’s gotta be the voice of reality.  If it tastes like crap and doesn’t work, I’m going to let  you know.

I also wanted to post something else. I got a little side tracked.  I started talking about APEX because I was reading something on their site.  Here’s the original post [http://my.apexfitness.com/vip/content/q_a_detail.php?story=94].  I had to laugh because of a few things.

1. It’s nice to see that with the bodybugg the wool is pulled off of many peoples’ eyes.

2. It’s sad to see that the simple equation for being healthy eludes many people for many reasons.

3. I’m glad to see people who learn how easy it is, will now find more, creative ways to be active.

What is this all about?  To paraphrase the article, someone wrote into Apex and said “Hey!  I’m burning as many calories doing housework as I do when I workout!”  and Apex was like, “duhhhh?” in a nice way. And no I don’t mean it in a demeaning way HAHA!  I’m purely being comedic about it but think about it!  How many times do you have to say BURN more than you EAT?  People will NOT believe you until you strap them into the bodybugg and show them PROOF. 

Prove it to them. And they did. I love it. 

So people are strapping on the bodybugg and proof!  They don’t move as much as they think they do.  And proof!  They are eating more than they think they do.  And proof!  If they just stand instead of sit down for an hour a day, they will burn extra calories.

No one’s saying train for a triatholon!  If you’re lazy, OK! Just stand there instead of sit. If you’re allergic to sweating? OK! Turn on the radio and sweep your kitchen…briskly.  It’s all a matter of finding things to do and getting away from not doing anything.

Look, we’re all tired.  We all have long days of work or school or whatever is going on in our lives.  The fact remains that if you’re tired to the point that you have no energy left at the end of the day, you need this more than anyone and I’m going to tell you from personal experience.

When I get home, the first thing I think of at 6pm is my bed, not the damned elliptical.  I want to curl under my awesome, soft blanket and sink into my amazing mattress and fade away until the next morning.  But I don’t do it. I have done it. I fall off the bandwagon, pick myself up, and then I remember that it’s only a 1/2 hour.  A 1/2 hour on my elliptical will give me my calorie burning goal for the day.  And then something amazing happens…

I feel great.  I’m still tired, but I feel better.  I’ve hit my goal, I’ve done something for myself, I’ve given myself some energy. It’s enough to get me through dinner or to the hot bubble bath that will help lull me to sleep.

Take this to heart:  I’m a mom of four boys and a student full time. My job as mother is one job that I take more seriously than anything else in the world. Trust me, nothing else will come above it. But if I don’t take care of me, what am I doing for them? The answer is nothing. If you don’t take care of you, you are taking the chance of not being there to take care of anyone else. You are taking the chance of having someone obligated to take care of you and hopefully that doesn’t sit well in your mind.

I want my quality of life to be one of quality, not full of doctor visits, medication, etc.  The best “preventitive” medicine you can give yourself is 30-60 mins of health. I feel the worst when I’ve gone two weeks without a good, ass-kickin workout.  People around me tell me to go workout because I’m crabby and depressed. Working out takes the stress out of my life, gives me the endorphins I need and keeps me out of a horrible, monotonous routine.

Don’t wait until January 1 to make your resolution, make it now and shoot for the New Year as a checkpoint on your way to that goal =)

Even the Mighty Can Fall

So with school I wasn’t doing too bad in keeping up with my workouts. However..(grumble), add in an entire move to another house just after a hurricane and you get ..well, you get bad things.

I haven’t been able to workout because immediately following school, I had to go home and wait for deliveries or run to the store to buy something, go to an office to sign something or just collapse from sheer lack of energy.  It’s also been a month of my birthday, my son’s birthday, followed by the beginning of November which is my mother’s birthday and my father’s birthday..oh and don’t forget the house warming party. (takes a breath)

So I called Lorenzo and I begged and pleaded for him to change my schedule because I used to live in a straight line from school to gym to home and could easily make it from one to the other with little problem. Now I live about 18 miles from school/gym and that poses a problem when my class ends at 9:30 and my training session was at 2 or 5.

Being my wonderful trainer, he was able to accomodate that and so starting today, I will be getting my butt kicked once more.  I’m pretty sure I’ve gained at least 2-4 lbs and to those of you gawking at why that’s such a big deal, let’s remember I’m also 5’4 and 5lbs to me is like 10-15lbs to someone who isn’t vertically challenged.

I’ve had 2 papers due, one final exam, 2 biology tests, one math test — all due from the beginning of October until current place and time (November…and I’m pretty sure it’s something like the 12th, but I could be off by like..oh, say..a year?!). 

Time is like a distant memory.  I would not be so bold as to ask for another few hours in the day, that would only mean I’d have more to do.  As it stands right now, I shut down like clockwork at 10pm.  So that means there’s a mad rush between the hours of 6:30 AM and 10 to get -everything- done.  School, kids, laundry, housework, dinner, study, homework, solve world hunger…

I’m sure mom’s everywhere relate.

I’ve found that I look at this site and long for the time to write but what about?  I am working on a schedule of things and some research I can do, then picking one day a week when I can just focus on that issue.  Thank you for everyone that continues to come and peek at the page.  I haven’t forgotten you guys!  I’ll keep you posted on how bad — erm — how good my session goes today! 😉

Scale Wars: The Trainer Strikes Back

I thought I’d do something about the scale today and I’ll explain why.  Like everyone else, trainers have issues with the scale.  No really, it’s true.  As superhuman as people think we are, there are days when we look down at the scale, scream and flail while cursing obscenities at it.  It seems to defy logical thinking to believe that you can be getting slimmer, while the scale continues to say you’ve not changed your weight at all. 

A funny little story — I weighed in last week and kept telling Lorenzo, “I haven’t lost any weight.”  He made me face away from the numbers on the scale while he weighed me and lo and behold, on HIS scale, I lost weight.  He said, “What’s wrong with your scale?”  and I had laugh.  I finally had an excuse to say, “My scale lies!”

The truth is, you can lose fat and not lose weight.  Let this sink in because it’s going to be vital to your sanity.  With all the media hype about being a size 0 and having a weight in the double digits, we (mostly women, but some men too!) will become obsessed with a scale weight.

In High School it became a real problem for me.  I was the same age/height as Alyssa Milano and she only weighed 95lbs.  I couldn’t get below 108.  I was always exercising trying to get my weight down until I got a job working for the health club and learned how to be healthy.  What scares me is that, had I not gotten that job?  I might have been in a lot of trouble.  The inspiration for me to keep going?  To make sure that no other girl has to go through that. 

I don’t want to see anyone go through the pain of staring down at the scale and thinking they’ve failed.  Look at your body. Look at your clothes and how they fit.  LISTEN to friends and family who say you’re losing or looking great. 

Embed it into your mind: Muscles weighs more than fat.  And you need that lean muscle to kick start your metabolism and to burn more calories.  The more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn sitting around doing NOTHING. 

I like sitting around doing nothing!  It’s a rare moment when it happens. Knowing that my body will continue to work even when I’m not, makes me feel much better.  I don’t need to look like Arnold or Triple H — I can still be nicely toned, healthy and lean while still being efficient at the Calorie vs Fat war.

I was able to fix a huge obsession with the scale but others are still battling it. When I weigh myself, it’s just to keep myself in check.  I know that 1-2 lb fluctuation is due to minute things like water weight, etc.  But if I go higher than that, I know I need to keep a tighter reign on my calorie and water intake.  I don’t really care anymore what the scale says, I just want to look good on the outside and maintain a healthy body on the inside.

If I can do all that and my scale weight never changes, I’ll be okay with it.  And you should be, too!

 

Weigh In: 30%

I weighed in yesterday with Lorenzo.  The numbers are decent.  I’m at 30% of my goal in just two weeks of work.  With school and kids, I have been cheating myself of cardio so Lorenzo made sure I got it in yesterday.  I’m so very thankful — even if I’m saying it in a monotonous, flat tone of voice. =D

If I can pull myself out of the zombie state I am usually in after school I can get better results.  The winter is coming (do we have winter in Texas?) and I can feel that depressive state creeping up on me.  None the less, I’m keeping motivated.  My birthday and Halloween is my goal.  What can I say?  I’m an Autumn baby and it’s my favorite time of the year.

So to recap:  Birthday is October 19 (sound the panic buttons) and Halloween is October 31. Today is the 9th and that means my first milestone I have less than 10 days to really work.

It’s been nice having someone push me when I felt like going home and crawling into bed, though.  Believe me, I’ve thought about it plenty of times but I really want to hit my goal.  I’m a very stubborn woman, anyone that really knows me is shaking their head so hard we might have a whiplash epidemic.  If I want something, I don’t settle until I have it, so this needs to happen. LoL

I want to also apologize for not adding more stuff on here other than small updates.  I will try to be more active on it once I finish off one of my classes (it’s a short term for one) which ends approx around my birthday, incidentally. 

I haven’t forgotten you guys, I promise!

 

 

Training a Trainer

As you all know, I’ve been a personal trainer for a combined total of 10 years. You can see by my profile that even with all my training, I still have my own demons to overcome. So I’ve been brainstorming. I decided that I would show you that even someone that knows all they need to know, who has all the tools they need, sometimes needs an outside influence to come in and redirect.

No matter how much you know, you have to be willing to open your mind to someone else. It’s a common practice. You’ll find it done in college for study groups, artists do it, musicians do it, and now trainers do it. One of my strategies as a trainer is to know..that I don’t know everything. I have to think outside of the box and the best way to learn, is from another trainer.

Top atheletes hire trainers to keep them motivated, get up to date workouts, and so that they constantly have an edge to their own current workout routines. I figured, “what the hell..I will do it too!” So it is my decision to employ a trainer of my own!  Since I’ll be starting Fall semester again this Monday, I will need someone to keep me motivated and active. I want to lose the “Freshman Fifteen”, not gain it!

Enter Lorenzo. Lorenzo is the fitness manager at the 24 Hour Fitness that I used to work for and currently a member of. He’s agreed to get me into tip top shape and to help me get to the goals I’m working toward.

Once I start, which should be in the next few weeks, I’ll be giving you more information so you can follow along. I decided to give myself a week or two to acclamate myself to my school schedule, first. If I’m brave enough (haha!) I’ll even include pics. Stay tuned ..and..wish me luck!

Serialtrainer.com

I got the domain http://www.serialtrainer.com so if you guys find it easier to remember that (not sure why!) there ya go. I may expand on this blog there or I may just use it as a forwarding domain. I haven’t decided but I’d thought I’d inform you, none the less!